2 minutes | Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Going back to November 11, 2020 – Morgan Wallen walked away with CMA’s “New Artist of the Year” award.
He was a rising force in country music, beating out other new artists, Gabby Barrett, Carly Pearce, Ingrid Andress, and Jimmie Allen. He had major successes with his album “If I Know Me” including this song, “Up Down,” featuring Florida Georgia Line.
And, “Whiskey Glasses,” which was certified Platinum and Morgan’s first number one single.
You might be thinking, oh wow this was back when Morgan showed up to country music award presentations! Yeah, that following year in 2021, a video of Morgan using a racial slur surfaced online, which led the CMA Awards to ban Morgan from attending the ceremony in any way. And he never came back, even when he was nominated for AND WON CMA’s Entertainer of the Year Award in 2024.